NITI Aayog Launches ‘AI for Viksit Bharat Roadmap’ & ‘Frontier Tech Repository’ at Road to India AI Impact Summit 2026.

In September 2025, Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Minister of Railways & Information and Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw jointly launched two landmark Artificial Intelligence (AI) initiatives of NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog during the Road to India AI Impact Summit 2026 held in New Delhi.

      - These initiatives mark a strategic step towards India’s vision of becoming a global leader in AI and frontier technologies.

      - The AI for Viksit Bharat Roadmap is a comprehensive national action plan that emphasizes two key levers: (i) accelerating adoption of AI across industries to enhance productivity, efficiency, and competitiveness, and (ii) transforming Research & Development (R&D) with generative AI to position India as an innovation-driven economy. The roadmap aligns with India’s Vision@2047 for economic transformation.

      - The roadmap is based on a NITI Aayog report that outlines sector-specific strategies in agriculture, manufacturing, logistics, finance, and healthcare. It highlights AI’s potential to add USD 500 billion to India’s GDP by 2030, and identifies steps to build scalable data ecosystems, digital infrastructure, and AI-ready skilled workforce.

Main Point :-   (i) The Frontier Tech Repository is a centralized platform showcasing use cases in AI, blockchain, quantum computing, IoT, and robotics. It serves as a resource hub for startups, governments, policymakers, and enterprises to scale proven solutions.

      (ii) The Frontier 50 Initiative under the repository will target 50 Aspirational Districts and Blocks (under ADP – Aspirational Districts Programme & ABP – Aspirational Blocks Programme) where frontier technologies will be deployed to achieve faster saturation in governance, healthcare, financial inclusion, digital education, and rural livelihoods.

(iii) The event also introduced the Frontier Tech Impact Awards for States, an annual recognition where three states will be awarded for excellence in adopting and scaling frontier technologies to deliver measurable socio-economic outcomes in governance, public services, education, and healthcare.